sachmo71
08-30-2004, 08:42 AM
Has anyone heard about this movie? There was a story about it on the radio this morning, and I can't stop thinking about whether it would ever show in America or not.
World Premiere
Hamburg Cell
Antonia Bird / UK / 2004 / 100 min
Less than three years after it occurred, the events of September 11 have already transcended fiction - to the extent that today, seeing an actor portray Mohamed Atta is a little like watching someone play Hitler, or Napoleon. Famous only for a single thing, and unknown to the world until hours after his death, Atta has become an almost legendary figure, more myth than man. Other than his mug shot, endlessly reproduced in the media, we have no primary sources, no transcripts: no idea what his voice sounded like, or how he walked, or what he looked like when (or if) he smiled. And because of this lack of evidence, to see him represented onscreen here, talking and arguing - like a regular guy - is faintly jarring. One can only wonder how it struck the actor portraying him, a fellow Muslim, to incarnate such a famous enigma.
Hamburg Cell, though, is only indirectly Atta's story. Its actual focus is another of the 9/11 terrorists, Ziad Jarrah, and it follows his journey: from a student of aeronautical engineering at the University of Applied Science in Hamburg (where Atta also studied), through his conversion to the cause of jihad, to his death aboard United Airlines flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania, perhaps en route to the White House. A secular Muslim when the film begins, he is gradually seduced by the fundamentalist community on the campus, and quickly adopts many of its pet theories - about the evils of America, the threat of a global Zionist conspiracy, the need for violent strikes against the infidels. Such beliefs put him in conflict with his girlfriend, a fellow student, and much of the film deals with his attempts to reconcile his new faith with his previous character.
All conjecture, of course - yet credit must go here to director Antonia Bird and screenwriter Ronan Bennett, who were surely aware of the risks, creative and otherwise, this enterprise entailed. For Bennett in particular, it's a breakthrough: some of his previous writing has displayed a slightly naïve belief in the terrorist-as-hero; here, though, his tone is measured, his approach resolutely non-partisan. It's indicative of the film's even-handedness that it might be read in radically different ways, depending on one's perspective and beliefs. Were the viewer a fundamentalist Muslim sympathetic to jihad, it could be seen as a celebration, a rallying-call to the faithful. Whereas, for hawkish neo-cons, it must seem like a journey into the heart of darkness, a study of pure evil. However, for most of us, adrift in the centre and sickened by both extremes, it's a document of ideological corruption, the unthinkable made flesh.
I don't know how I would feel watching this movie, which is part of the reason I want to see it. I firmly believe in viewing as many sides of an issues as I possibly can, but as far as 9/11 goes...do I really even want to?
It sounds like the movie is made for TV, I think.
World Premiere
Hamburg Cell
Antonia Bird / UK / 2004 / 100 min
Less than three years after it occurred, the events of September 11 have already transcended fiction - to the extent that today, seeing an actor portray Mohamed Atta is a little like watching someone play Hitler, or Napoleon. Famous only for a single thing, and unknown to the world until hours after his death, Atta has become an almost legendary figure, more myth than man. Other than his mug shot, endlessly reproduced in the media, we have no primary sources, no transcripts: no idea what his voice sounded like, or how he walked, or what he looked like when (or if) he smiled. And because of this lack of evidence, to see him represented onscreen here, talking and arguing - like a regular guy - is faintly jarring. One can only wonder how it struck the actor portraying him, a fellow Muslim, to incarnate such a famous enigma.
Hamburg Cell, though, is only indirectly Atta's story. Its actual focus is another of the 9/11 terrorists, Ziad Jarrah, and it follows his journey: from a student of aeronautical engineering at the University of Applied Science in Hamburg (where Atta also studied), through his conversion to the cause of jihad, to his death aboard United Airlines flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania, perhaps en route to the White House. A secular Muslim when the film begins, he is gradually seduced by the fundamentalist community on the campus, and quickly adopts many of its pet theories - about the evils of America, the threat of a global Zionist conspiracy, the need for violent strikes against the infidels. Such beliefs put him in conflict with his girlfriend, a fellow student, and much of the film deals with his attempts to reconcile his new faith with his previous character.
All conjecture, of course - yet credit must go here to director Antonia Bird and screenwriter Ronan Bennett, who were surely aware of the risks, creative and otherwise, this enterprise entailed. For Bennett in particular, it's a breakthrough: some of his previous writing has displayed a slightly naïve belief in the terrorist-as-hero; here, though, his tone is measured, his approach resolutely non-partisan. It's indicative of the film's even-handedness that it might be read in radically different ways, depending on one's perspective and beliefs. Were the viewer a fundamentalist Muslim sympathetic to jihad, it could be seen as a celebration, a rallying-call to the faithful. Whereas, for hawkish neo-cons, it must seem like a journey into the heart of darkness, a study of pure evil. However, for most of us, adrift in the centre and sickened by both extremes, it's a document of ideological corruption, the unthinkable made flesh.
I don't know how I would feel watching this movie, which is part of the reason I want to see it. I firmly believe in viewing as many sides of an issues as I possibly can, but as far as 9/11 goes...do I really even want to?
It sounds like the movie is made for TV, I think.